ON TRACK TO AP & HONORS COURSES (VIA THE IMAGINATION) !!

ON TRACK TO AP & HONORS COURSES (VIA THE IMAGINATION) !!

Dear Parents!


Thank you to the many parents who've written inquiring about the Writers Studio workshops. While I wasn't planning to teach this summer, your enthusiasm has been the impetus to put some workshops together! I am truly touched.



COURSES



The most popular workshops are Aspiring Authors, Aspiring Tweens and Little Shakespeare. The course I teach in each time slot will be determined by the majority number of requests for it, by specific age groups. So if I get the most requests from parents of 7 year olds for Session A, it will become a Little Shakespeare class. Unless parents have a group in Lisle, the workshops will be in the Glen Ellyn North/ Glendale Heights area or at Wheaton Library.



Besides working with older students on college essays, I am also working online with Middle School, High School and Adult writers who have a novel in the making.



STRUCTURE



There will only be 3 workshops this summer. I've expanded them to 1.5 hours per day within a M-Th. framework, for a total of 6 hours. Students will write as much as possible during our session, rather than at home. As always, qualifying stories that have been completed, proofread and typed up, will be submitted for possible publication.



GREAT NEWS!



Aliya Husain, a writer I've worked with, is now an author on Amazon. She has sold almost 100 copies in pre-orders and since its release on Amazon, last week. I encourage you to check out Neither This Nor That by Aliya Husain. My daughter, Taskeen, too won 1st place in a National Writing Competition this year and can be read at Writers Studio and at Writers Slate, page 28. All WS students whose work qualified, can be read at here.

Feel free to write me with any questions. Since there are only limited sessions, Sign up Today!



Warmly,



Naazish

(630) 915-8654

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

New Writing Section Related to 2006 SAT Scores' Biggest Drop in 31 years

2006, two years ago, was the first year writing was introduced to the SAT and the section included a much-dreaded essay question, amongst other segments. Writing comprised one third of the total score, and according to a press release announcing the SAT scores for the class of '06, scores fell 7 points — the biggest drop in 31 years — for the high school class of 2006, the first to take the new version of the test.

SAT FACTS - Essay Subscores

* Fewer than 1 percent of students scored a 12.
* Average score was 7.2 out of 12.
* Only 8 percent of essays were identified as using the typical five-paragraph essays.
* Half of all essays were written in the first-person voice and received an average score of 6.9 versus 7.2 for all others.

*15 percent of essays were written in cursive, while the other 85 percent were printed. Essays written in cursive received a slightly higher score (7.2 for cursive, compared to 7.0 for those printed).

Fastfoward to 2007. According to The Nation's Report Card for 2007 while writing scores have improved, only one-third of U.S. 8th graders and 25 percent of its high school seniors are proficient writers. Further, the scores for boys were lower than girls.

GIRLS VS GUYS

SAT scores in 2006, showed that girls had an average score of 502 vs. 491 for boys out of a possible 800 on the writing portion, which included multiple choice questions and an essay. Females scored an average of 7.4 and males an average of 7.1 Girls again outscored boys on the ACT college entrance exam essay, also introduced in 2006.

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